Holden’s work reimagines the conditions and the sounds of the prison cell through emotive dioramas built in 1/12th scale, echoing the grey, black and white of the historical photographic records of the time. Utilising photographs of the dioramas, enlarged to life size, to create atmospheric images that place the viewer within the dark enclosed space. However, the work doesn’t just place the viewer inside a simple recreation of the cell, but instead asks questions such as ‘Could I have survived such a place?’, ‘Would I have been strong enough or would I have been beaten down?’ ‘Could I fight like they did, or would I have given up?’ 

The feminist movement of the late 20th century and the ‘#MeToo’ campaign of more recent years is part of what seems to be an endless fight for equal gender and political franchise. As an artist and social historian, Holden views the Suffragette Movement of the first two decades of the 20th century as a key point for this endless struggle to win the right to fair representation. 

Reading countless personal reports and letters written by the suffragette women during their ‘Deeds not Words’ militant campaign and through further research the artist is deeply affected by stories of the conditions and harsh torturous treatments endured by these women during periods of incarceration in Victorian prisons. During their sentences, the suffragettes endured actions such as violent force feeding and long periods of isolation and it is the imagined sense of oppression, fear and suffocation felt by these women, as they sat alone in their cells, listening to the noises, screams and even rebellious song coming from their fellow inmates. 

Democratic representation and social equality as a basic human right have been hard won by the few for the many, the work helps the viewer to gain a new appreciation for what they now have.